Turn your savings into a monthly retirement paycheck.

Many people save for decades and then find they cannot bring themselves to spend it, because watching a savings balance fall feels risky in a way a steady paycheck never does. Research for the Alliance for Lifetime Income by David Blanchett and Michael Finke found that retirees who hold more of their wealth as guaranteed lifetime income spend roughly twice as much as retirees with the same amount in ordinary savings. In their survey, most people said they would feel more comfortable spending on things like travel or dinners out if the money arrived as income for life rather than as an equivalent lump sum. That is what your Income Portfolio is for: it turns part of your savings into a dependable paycheck you feel free to actually use, which was the whole point of saving in the first place. Blanchett and Finke, "Guaranteed Income: A License to Spend," Alliance for Lifetime Income.

Running out of money is Americans' single biggest retirement fear. A 2026 study found that 67% of Americans worry more about running out of money than about death itself, and longevity is a big part of why. Averages hide how long retirement can last: the Actuaries Longevity Illustrator, built by the Society of Actuaries, shows a healthy 65-year-old couple has roughly a 50% chance that one of them lives to 95. Dependable income that keeps arriving for exactly as long as you live is what takes much of that fear off the table, because it is guaranteed not to run out no matter how long you live. That is the job your Income Portfolio is built to do. Society of Actuaries; Allianz Life 2026 Annual Retirement Study.

It is not only how the markets do over your whole retirement that matters, it is the order in which the good and bad years arrive. William Bengen's landmark 1994 study, and more recent research from Morningstar, showed that a market drop in the first few years of retirement is far more damaging than the same drop later, because selling investments to pay the bills while prices are down locks in losses the portfolio may never fully recover from, even if returns are strong afterward. A dependable paycheck that already covers your essentials means you are not forced to sell in a bad year. That is the quiet power of pairing the two portfolios: the income floor lets your Growth Portfolio ride out a downturn instead of being drained at the worst possible time. Bengen (1994); Morningstar, "The State of Retirement Income."

Prices tend to rise over time. Inflation has averaged around 3% a year, and that adds up across a long retirement. That is why your Growth Portfolio is equally as important: it stays protected during those early years, but is there to make up the gap which opens between your dependable income and the rising cost of living over the years ahead. Bureau of Labor Statistics.